We totally agree that white items needs to be useful or interesting in some way, because there are no real reason to have them in the game if they are not... making them some type of base items for heavy random properties enchants is an interesting idea for sure. Nothing have been set in stone yet however, so we are definitely interested in hearing more from you guys about what you think would make white items more interesting.

In case you are interested, Wyatt Cheng recently shared his thoughts on the topic of white items in Diablo III.

Anyways, back on topic, Wyatt Cheng has answered this question, which you can see if you follow the developer interview link that I posted in my previous post:

I know that there's a really popular request to hide white items, and blue items even. I think that that's a totally understandable request. It's not really something that we want to do. What we'd rather do is get to the root of the problem.

great, so the developer has decided it is much better for us to suffer this problem for months and months instead of giving us a temporary fix.... awesome mentality, just awesome....
I would personally think that focusing on fixing the problem instead fixing the symptoms of the problem in general is an awesome mentality, but that is of course just my opinion.

If you are truly suffering from playing the game in its current state, then maybe you would feel better if you simply took a break for a little while and focused on something else. I totally understand that waiting sucks, In fact I hate having to wait on things myself, but knowing that the passage of time can feel faster simply by changing your focus to something else really helps in these cases... After all, a watched pot never boils

and maybe i would have read the interview if it was on these forums?why is it we have to go to all these other sites to gather information about diablo 3 instead of the d3 forums ?
The Diablo III community is very large and widespread, and many Diablo III players prefer to visit thrid party sites instead of our forums to talk about our games. Although we generally post new information on our blogs and forums, our developers like to also reach out to the game's community outside of these forums. For the record. we did actually link to these developer interviews on our blog here on battle.net.

Community Commentary: Post-1.0.8 Farming Routes
A great guide has been posted on the official forums showcasing some of the best farming routes after the 1.0.8 changes. The author, huanAK, has gone to great lengths to collect data and present players will some clearly awesome routes.

This week our Community Commentary is all about farming routes. We've highlighted some player-created routes before in this series, but with the changes to monster density in 1.0.8, many of those previously-popular spots have been replaced or updated to accommodate all new EXP running around in Acts I, II, and IV.

Which brings us to this week's shout-out!

Over on our official Hardcore forum, huanAK has posted a insightful thread called "Top 3 farming routes," highlighting three different routes in three different Acts. Of course, no farming guide would be complete without a little data, so in addition to identifying each route's physical path, huanAK also calls out experience per hour, experience per kill, kills per minute, as well as some more high-level pros and cons. (If you've been keeping track of data to help you figure out the best farming route, then this might be a great thread to share those findings in.)

So, did you find any of the routes huanAK mentions surprising or helpful? Do you have a farming route that you'd like to share, or have questions about a possible route? Leave a comment below, or head over to the Diablo III forums to talk about it with your fellow Nephalem in this thread!

Blizzcon Art Contest Rules
It seems not all countries are eligible for entering the Blizzcon Art contest.

Unfortunately, if your country is not listed in the BlizzCon Art Contest rules, it will not be eligible for the competition.

That said, we would still love to see your Diablo III fan art! So if you’re interested in sharing it with us, there’s still a chance it may be featured in one of our blogs, or social media channels, or even on the official Diablo III Media Gallery. So when you create something diabolically awesome, make sure to show us here on the Community Creations forum!

I can submit from croatia but not from serbia or bosnia and herzegowina, why is that? Its discrimination if you ask me. (also no people from africa), i dont understand why someone couldnt participate.
This short answer is that each country has slightly different laws and rules about online contests. This fundamentally limits who is able to enter various contests.

Then the whole idea about reducing the amount of useless loot we need to pickup false on the ground.

I wan´t to spend more time killing monsters, not more time picking up items.

What if you had a Treasure Goblin follow you and pick up said items for you, throwing out rare loot sometimes?

Would seem as a bit of an odd mechanic. Basically just another random drop.

I think the best way to bring back white items in a meaningful way is an imbue system, as Desmondtiny is talking about. Reworking how sockets work and then adding runewords would also be a very interesting thing.The key point here is that you would only have to pick up that one white item you find interesting and work on that, yet you would still be looking out for something better or more unique.

I really don´t like "carrot on a stick" method for making me pick up everything. i don´t want rewards for picking up enough things that i dont care about, it just feels like an ordeal

i think an imbue system is alright....it kind of helps....i mean....you're not going just pick up random Short Sword and imbue it though....so what's the point? Even with an imbue system in place, the amount of white items we actually pick up will be minimal at best. I would rather see white item drop rate decreased and allow them to be salvageable.

Their whole design of white items was to create the "loot pinata" effect. While im sure a lot of people groaned at this, it does have its merit; people like seeing loot, and what better loot than explosions of things falling onto the ground to pick up.

The problem is two fold though:

- People have started to get use to game designs that hide and/or get rid of unwanted loot. Diablo 2 had "3rd party" programs and mods that would deal with loot thresholds, this gave players options to remove clutter from their screen and game if they so choose. It went further when games like torchlight and torchlight 2 streamlined this functionality. WoW and other mmos have quick / mindless options to get rid of grey and unwanted loot without player interaction, or very little. Most games these days are starting to pull away from having "junk loot" altogether, or at the very least from bogging down the player experience and time. PoE for example, has an item system where every single item that drops has a purpose, even "junk loot" becomes a crafting material.

- Loot pinatas are only favorable if you know the loot in and of itself is desirable. Kids want to bash open that stuffed animal because they know its full of tasty candy. If it was full of Walmart coupons...they would be less enthusiastic. If you, as an adult, were hitting a pinata and all that was inside were pennies, I'm pretty sure the enthusiasm would decline just as much. While pennies are still useful currency ( Just like white items on the ground ) , the effort you would have to go through to exchange them outweighs the actual profit of having them. It's much less efficient to gather pennies ( and white items ) , to exchange them for more reasonable trade goods, than it would be to just leave them where they lay and spend that extra time being productive in another manner.

The "loot pinata" effect in Diablo 2 was superb because magic find made it so white and blue items were removed from the lists ( almost entirely ). This meant that the "trash loot" was rare quality goods, and potions/scrolls. It was also great because the targets of loot were actual pinatas (The bosses and named spawns), where all of the important and sought after items dropped from. Diablo 3 still has elite packs, but they only serve to give you better chances at rare quality loot. All gear drops from all mobs in Diablo 3, so there is no real "pinata" effect to enjoy. It's more like standing in a pool of water and hitting it with a stick..causing splashes to shoot upward. No matter where you hit...you are going to get lots of water shooting outwards...but there's nothing magical about the process or the results; it's just a bunch of water droplets flying everywhere.

So really, there should be an option to hide quality of loot ( White, Blue, Yellow, Misc / Potions, etc.) if the value of these items is merely to create some sort of visual effect. If not, then the value of these items needs to be more important (which is why having the item revamp as soon as possible is critical for this game).

And like it was said above, the whole "just take a break" comments we are starting to see often from blizzard is getting a tad "snotty" I believe. Its rather silly, because they would ONLY say that for a game like diablo 3, where there is no monthly sub ( or huge competitive eSport-like atmosphere like Starcraft 2) that they can lose. I still find it rather odd considering that they have really tried to push the RMAH since the game's second design, but it does seem like at least some of the blizzard staff are trying to wean the game off the AH, or are just tired of it themselves entirely to bother endorsing it; that's just an assumption on my part. But seriously though, you shouldn't be telling people, especially those that have paid for your product, to "stop using it" if they are not enjoying it or the service provided by said company. That would be like Jeep telling owners that if they are afraid of their vehicle possibly causing a fire if hit from behind, to just "take a break from it" .

Here's to hoping that they figure out a better method/use for white items and the like, and that the item revamp comes along nicely; when/if it comes out.

i like the game and was surprised at how much more enjoyable it is to play after the monster density changes, but putting off seemingly any changes until an expac is far too long. the game really needs help now, and any small changes (or at least some contact from the devs about what is being worked on) would be welcomed.

Edit: With such a long delay expected for the all-at-once itemization patch, it looks like they're waiting on the expac. Wanted to clarify. I'm expecting the patch to line up with some sort of DLC for the console version.